The ESC’s resolution adopted on July 24, 2016 on the occasion of the Council of European Unions’s Recommendation to Bulgaria “pays attention to the retention of the main recommendations to the country from 2015 except the recommendation in the field of secondary education”. The recommendations for last year and current 2016 have four identical fields – fiscal policy, bank and non-bank sector, active policy on the labour market and the regulatory framework for insolvency. The four fields are directly related to the formation of macroeconomic imbalances in Bulgaria.
ESC accepts the general positive evaluation of EU for Bulgaria, but agrees as well with the recommendations regarding investment challenges in the country, improving the budget structure towards more public investments, faster and more effective overcoming the informal economy, as well as recommendations for healthcare and legal framework of insolvency.
The ESC act draws attention to the expected legal changes and stress tests for the banks which will increase the confidence in the financial system of the state. It draws attention as well to the planned review of the assets of the 27 pension funds and the balances of the 54 insurance companies operating on the Bulgarian market. ESC emphasizes, in a number of its acts, that the assets of the pension funds and insurance funds should be managed on maximum transparent and responsible manner as it is vital for the financial stability.
Regarding the active policies on the labour market ESC is concerned at the serious consequences of the long term unemployment, having in mind its comparatively high share in our country and especially among the young people. This is the topic of lots of ESC’acts in which a number of recommendations for new policies and measures are addressed to the government. This is a topic of many ESC acts, which made a series of recommendations to the government for new policies and measures and ESC reminde them again in this resolution. The resolution comments as well other major recommendations made by the European Council to Bulgaria and the actual ESC positions on them stand out.
